jueves, 21 de julio de 2016

A photographic safari works the same way a
normal safari would, except no animals are killed in the process. Instead,
people take pictures of the creatures they want to see or they take as many as
they can and make it kind of a contest. The one with the most types of animals
in pictures could win something especial, whether it comes rom it fellow safari
goers, the company that organizes the trip or himself/herself.

Olive was one such person. She had dreamt for
many years to go Africa and do a proper safari with the help of her best
camera. She had been an amateur photographer for a long time and was looking
forward to test herself with the weather and the creatures in a continent she
regarded as wild and beautiful.

In the plane towards her destination, she
started take pictures and documenting her journey in a smaller camera, doing
videos she could later edit into bigger ones and then upload them online. The
idea was that people could follow her progress over a week and make it
something that would not only change her life but also the life of people that
may want to know more about where she was going and the reasons she had to do
it. She was an animal passionate, a real defender of nature and wanted to take
the best pictures to show her respect for the true magnificence of it.

The first day was full of movement. She didn’t
see any animals in Nairobi, as the city was not really a proper place to see
wild animals. But she was picked up by a nice man called Arthur and taken to a
hotel in the middle of a close by natural park. It was the afternoon and Olive
hated herself for having no other option than to choose the flight that made
her arrive so late but it was the one she could afford with her salary.

As she crossed the gates of the small hotel,
she took her first picture: it was a couple of giraffes feeding off a very tall
tree. The sun was setting so the animas in the pictures could only be
identified for their large necks against a beautiful orange sunset in the
background. She took several pictures of the same subject; afraid she was not
using her camera well.She even changed
the angle and wouldn’t go inside her room until she felt she had gotten it
right.

Arthur told her he had been living in the area
for a long time and that some of the animals would not be as easy going as the
giraffes. Some of them really did not like to be filmed and photographed.
Furthermore, they would have to go out at night in order to take pictures of
every single animal if that’s what she wanted. Of course, Olive got worried
because she wasn’t experienced in nocturnal photography and she also felt she
wasn’t fast enough, taking too much time to achieve a single shot.

The next day, she posted her best picture of
the giraffe series on her blog and had breakfast very early in order for Arthur
to take her deeper into the natural park to take more pictures. But they
weren’t going to go there alone. Other guests of the hotel also wanted to
attend the safari. Most had very professional cameras ready and only a couple
only had very basic machines because they did not come to take pictures but to
experience the real Africa first hand.

The first creatures they saw were zebras.
Again, Olive took several pictures and realized she was nervous because of the
amount of pictures she took of a single specimen. She was clearly worried that
she wouldn’t be able to get the perfect shot and she had to let that go in
order not only to achieve her goals but to actually have some fun doing the
safari. She had to realize they were competing in this one so she could relax
and just try to enjoy it for what it was.

The next animal was a rhino. Arthur said it
was very uncommon to encounter one so early in the safari but, apparently, the
creature had needed to refresh his body first, before running away from the
cameras. It was deep into the mud, barely moving, ignoring them completely or
simply thinking that if he didn’t move no one would see him. Olive didn’t like
those pictures at all because it was hard to recognize the rhino’s head. She
tired to take some more but the jeep moved along.

They saw a big flock of long legged birds and
Arthur also stopped next to a rotting tree in order for his passengers to check
it out for insects. There were many beautiful and large ones, having really
bright colors and curious shapes. Some of the other women were scared,
squeaking like a mouse every time a big insect moved. But Olive was very busy
taking pictures to be scared. She managed to get some very interesting angles
and was pleased with herself for the first time that day.

They so more giraffes on the way back to the
hotel, as they were going to have a break for lunch. Olive was not interested
in eating too much but she did have to attend and stand the silly conversations
that broke out between the various people of the tour.

She
had always felt very different in large groups. That wasn’t a very large one
only about eight people were there, but she knew what she had come for and she
didn’t like to make small talk or to pretend she was there to make friends
instead of taking pictures and getting better at it. She almost didn’t have a
bite and decided to be the first in the jeep for the afternoon ride, getting
away from the chatter and the silly laughter.

Arthur was the first one to walk up to the
jeep and he asked her if she was ok. At first, Olive didn’t understand the
question. She only instinctively moved her head affirmatively because she
didn’t wanted to talk, to busy checking her pictures in her camera. That night,
she would recall that moment and feel stupid. It was obvious Arthur was
actually concerned about her but she had dismissed him in a second, as she
often did when people tried to be nice to her.

The first creatures of the afternoon were
elephants. A rather large group of them was resting under a very big tree, so
big it was able to cast a big enough shadow for a group of ten elephants. They
looked so peaceful and wise somehow that everyone in the jeep decided not to
make a single noise. The engine of the machine was turned off and the tourists
were able to stare at the creatures for a long time. They were resting and
didn’t care about humans.

As Olive took pictures, Arthur got close to
her and told her in very low register that she could go closer if she wanted,
but not too far away from the vehicle. She nodded and immediately jumped off
the jeep, landing very hard on her ankles. Olive tried to ignore the pain and
got the camera ready to shoot the best pictures yet. A couple of the other
tourists stepped down from the jeep too but they didn’t walk too far way from
it, just a couple of steps.

She got as close as she felt was safe and then
she started to take more and more pictures. Of the big elephant that was “sitting”
on the floor, with a similar expression a king would have on his throne. Also
of the three little elephants that were taken care of big the larger ones in
the group, probably their mothers. Olive tired to move in silence but she was
too excited to do it properly. She couldn’t realize what was happening because
of that excitement but the creatures were getting anxious.

As she was kneeling to take a better group
shot, one of the elephants suddenly turned around and charged towards her, as
fast as it could. It took her a couple of seconds to realize what was going on
and her first thought was not to run towards the jeep. That proved to be a
mistake because there was no other place in that savannah to hide from an
elephant.

A gunshot then scared the elephants away,
including the one chasing Olive. It had been very close to tackle her with its
tusks and crush her with its weight but fortunately Arthur had a rifle in the
jeep and was able to shoot at the sky when necessary. Yet, Olive had not gone
unpunished from the experience. In the run, she had dropped her camera and it
now laid destroyed on the savannah floor, stepped on by an insulted elephant.

Olive felt she was done. That accident meant
she just wasn’t fit to be there, to pretend she was someone she wasn’t.

sábado, 6 de febrero de 2016

The first battalion to arrive at the drop
point was the 501st. Commander Yok, who led them nowadays, was a
very experienced man, having the privilege of been one of the few soldiers in
the war to have been personally awarded a medal by the Chancellor. He was very
respected by his men and it hadn’t been very difficult to decide he would be
the one to lead the invasion of Kamara. And even if they hadn’t chosen him, he
would have volunteered. That was the kind of man Yok was, always putting the
mission first, him second.

The
planet Kamara was very far the industrial worlds and the farming planets but it
was important for another reason: tourism. It had been a resort world for many
centuries, a favorite spot for the wealthy of the galaxy but just after the war
the ties to the planet had been cut and the indigenous population, which lived
of the tourists, was left to defend itself when the Confederacy invaded. They
destroyed many of the hotels and resorts, as well as many attractions that had
made of Kamara the envy of all the tropical worlds.

Commander Yok landed in the jungle, near
Kyloi, the capital of the world and the center of all confederate activity. The
idea was simple: to decimate them with aerial attacks and then move in the
troops. They were lucky enough to have two full cruisers for this mission so
the planet was expected to fall shorty after the arrival of he army. Such was
the trust put on Yok and his men that many aristocrats were already planning
their trips to Kamara, not only to enjoy its beaches and climate but to recover
the fortunes they had left in the many vaults constructed all around.

Before the first way of bombers departed, Yok
demanded a probe to be sent and check for the status of the city and the
population. But that proved useless as the probe, and the two sent after that
one, exploded in midair before reaching the central area of the city. Bombing
started and from a mountain overlooking the city, Yok was able to see how many
buildings the bombs destroyed, how they fell and burned. He was pumped. He had
been made for this in the factories of his home world, and now his flesh was
ready for battle.

He led his men raging through the streets of
the decimated city, running at first and the marching, all the way to the
capitol of Kamara, building that was at the center of the city in every sense
possible. They were silent, slowing down their march and blowing up roadblocks
every so often. They climbed the steps of the capitol and went inside. No one
was there, not a single confederate. They went to the top of the building and
planted there the flag of the galactic government, claiming back Kamara. But
joy was short-lived.

Everyone knew taking a planet couldn’t be that
easy. It normally involved very heavy fighting and resistance. It required
days, at least, or months at most. Besides, they hadn’t seen a single native.
The people there were rather humanoid but with green skin. If they had seen
one, it would have been obvious. But nothing, not one of them was lying dead on
the street or hiding in any of the many building that the 501st
checked on that first day. To prevent anything from going wrong, Yok asked for
no more battalions to come down to the ground until the situation was clearer.

The first night was very confusing for the soldiers.
They gather around and improvised fire and were rapidly divided into two
groups: the one that believed they had won already because the enemy had
abandoned Kamara and the other group, who believed there was something darker
in the shadows of the capital. They discussed each theory thoroughly but didn’t
reach any consensus. Yok didn’t really pay attention, not even taking part of
the conversation.

He was a soldier, a hero for many and now he
was in a situation in which he had never been before. The enemy appeared to be
smarter this time or at least much more mysterious than usual. He wondered why
there were no bodies, from any kind, why there were no signs of the invasion
that had cut off Kamara definitely from the rest of the galaxy. Communications
had been interrupted but in the capital all services appeared to be in optimal
shape except they didn’t work.

Yok was the only one that didn’t sleep that
night. Every other man closed his eyes and fell asleep fast. None of them were
tired, they couldn’t really be but maybe it was because it was their first
peaceful night in a while that they felt so at ease and in peace in Kyloi. The
following they, they checked several other government offices but they couldn’t
find anything that would explain why the planet was deserted. The army was
already considering pulling off their war effort on the planet and place it
somewhere they could actually help in some way.

But as decisions were taken, something
happened and only the 501st was there to see it. Up, in the sky,
several enemy cruisers appeared out of nowhere. They engaged the army in the
air and the battalion on the ground could only see how their forces were
destroyed in a matter of hours. The only ship they had was a shuttle that
hadn’t been built for galactic travel. So they were trapped in Kamara with
enemy cruisers in the air and a sudden sound that made their souls quiver. It
was a sound they realized had always been there but just now they realized it
wasn’t supposed to be there.

The enemy cruisers left the airspace,
disappearing into the blackness of space, leaving the soldiers frightened to
death on the ground. The sound didn’t stop, growing in volume and, apparently,
in number. They all had their guns up, pointing at the sound as if they could attack
it. But they couldn’t do anything about it. The sound continued as the small
group of men climbed a building and decided to take shelter in the terrace, in
order to see if they could decipher what was making that noise.

But when they decided to investigate, the
sound stopped. However, damage had been done. The men were scared and knew they
were trapped for at least three days if not more. Commander Yok tried to
contact their headquarters several times but he was unable to do so. Nothing
came into his radio, no communication of any kind. He even tired scanning the
sky for ships, even maybe cargo vessels or whatever was up there. But nothing,
it just didn’t work.

Then they heard another sound but this was
weaker. It came from below so they descended the building and so what it was. A
humanoid, one of the greens that inhabited the planet, was there in front of
them. But it didn’t seem to be ok. It was barely moving, its arm an legs moving
very strangely and his eyes just opened but unfocused. Commander Yok ordered
the men to raise their weapons and wait for his command. The humanoid stayed
there and he began to tremble, especially around the waist and chest. The men
were all scared at this point.

Suddenly, the most awful thing that could have
happened happened. The humanoid burst open and from inside his bodies many insect-like
creatures emerged, breaking his ribcage and launching themselves towards the
soldiers. Gunfire was heard all around, insects blowing up in one side and the
other. Commander Yok ordered the men to climb up the building again. But he
hadn’t realized many more insects had come out, they appeared to have been
waiting for them or possibly they all hatched at the same time.

Arriving last in the terrace and locking the
entrance, Yok realized the enemy had set them up. They had used some kind of
creature to lay eggs inside the indigenous people of Kamara and use them as
hosts that would burst open once the army had arrived. The bodies were probably
in the sewers and hadn’t been detected because they were practically dead.

The insects pounded the door hard, clinking
sound made by their pincers. Every single man tried to help in holding the
door, except Yok. He knew what was going to happen, somehow he had always
known. He decided to put on his helmet and face the true destiny of a hero, of
a true soldier of the Republic.

domingo, 7 de diciembre de 2014

Carmina Wolf was an entomologist, specialized in bees and wasps. She had travelled the world tracing this little creatures and now headed off to her final destination: a UN summit in Geneva where she would be able to present her findings to a panel of experts put together by the FAO.

On the plane from Seoul to Geneva, she just kept thinking of the potential of her discoveries. It was terrible, of course, but it also meant something could be done. Nothing is definite when you realize it on time, or she thought.

The flight was really long but she couldn't sleep so she forced herself to watch some movies, none of which ere very interesting. She took her blanket and tried to sleep with some music on but then people started making noises. It was really annoying to get to Switzerland with no sleep and now people weren't helping. She heard them open their window shades, so she pulled the blanket over her head.

She stopped ignoring them when they started to scream and gasp and talk fast and loud. Suddenly all shades were being pulled up, so Carmina took a look through the window. She certainly wasn't expecting that...

High above the clouds and higher than the plane, a fire ball appeared to be falling down. The plane was very far but the ball could be seen easily as it's light was blinding, all white and powerful. It certainly was a scary moment but, for some reason, people were generally calm.
Short after, the pilot announcing all flights were asked to change course and go south. They haven't been asked to land anywhere close but there was still a possibility to do so.

An hour later, the ball of fire looked smaller but equally as bright. Carmina thought of the people below, and how scared they must have been. She checked her on board computer and realized they were flying over Russia, a country frequently hit by meteorites. A scientist she had met in a conference had told her so. But this meteorite looked massive or maybe that was because she had never seen one.

Suddenly the pilot spoke again and, this time, he said authorities of all the countries in the vicinity had decided to ground the planes. Carmina's one had to land in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. The pilot did not know for how long they would have to stay there but authorities were trying to keep the planes down for the minimum amount of time.

It was shortly before landing that the explosion occurred. It felt and sounded awful. The plane was hit by the sound wave and turbulence was really bad. People were screaming, babies crying, food trays hitting the ground and even bags falling from the overhead compartments. Everyone was a nervous wreck so, when the plane landed in Astana, it was not a surprise when everyone applauded and cheered the moment. They were all grateful to be alive.

They were evacuated through the inflatable slides on each door, to make it faster. Then, the pilot stayed with the airport authorities to assess any damage to the plane as the rest of the crew helped the passengers to a bus, which took them to the terminal.

Carmina was tired, from all that had happened and because she hadn't slept for a single minute but when they entered the building she realized it would take even more time to rest. The place was filled with people, both incoming passengers and people who had not been able to board their flights. Her group stayed in a corner, to have better control over everyone according to a stewardess.

Everyone fell silent when every single TV set on the terminal started broadcasting images of the meteorite and how it had it the ground with violence. Although the news station was in Russian, every passenger could understand that the meteorite was big but, thankfully, not the kind of fire balls that cause extinction. However, it had fallen near Omsk, a fairly large city in Russia. Imaged of destroyed windows, trees on fire and a houses destroyed was broadcasted for the remaining hours and, against all odds, Carmina was finally able to get some sleep.

When she woke up, it was dark outside. She went to the bathroom where she met a woman crying with her daughter sitting by the sink. The woman tried to clean her tears fast so Carmina wouldn't see her but it was to no use. In her stall, the entomologist heard the woman speak in Russian to her daughter, again crying unconsolably. It was heart breaking, even without having a clue about what was going on.

When Carmina came out of her stall, the woman was not there. She washed her hands, her face and tried to comb her hair with her fingers but the result was not very good. She came out of the bathroom and walked around, watching hundreds, maybe thousands sleeping on the floor. All the screen were turned off and only security agents roamed the place, gently smiling when she stumbled upon any of them.

She arrived at the food court and realized how hungry she was. But every store was closed, which was obvious because of the time of day and the current situation. The tables and chairs that were normally for eating were now occupied by people trying to get some sleep.

Carmina decided to step outside, to a little balcony the terminal had for plane enthusiasts. It was very cold but that didn't bother her. She looked and counted the planes on the tarmac. There were at least twenty and suspected there were more on other places of the airport. Suddenly the door of the balcony opened and an older woman came out. She looked at Carmina and smiled and contemplated the place.

After some time, the woman spoke:

- It will keep happening, you know?

Carmina did not understand.

- What?
- It will keep happening, more and more frequently.
- The meteorites, you mean?

She nodded. Carmina started to feel colder but was mesmerized by the odd look and mysterious attitude of the older woman.

- This world... We just live here. It isn't ours and it certainly isn't living forever.
- You think were all going to...?
- Die?... Maybe. Not necessarily but it's no secret we are heading in that direction.

It was so strange. It was if... She knew more. As if she knew the same thing Carmina had suspected months before.

- Sorry... Are you an expert of sorts?

The woman laughed and looked at her.

- Not really, child. I'm just aware of things around me.

The woman looked one last time towards the tarmac, smiled at Carmina and entered the building. The young woman did the same, as she was feeling too cold. The words of that woman were all around her mind but it was silly to worry now. She had to sleep as the following day was a hard one.

All planes were allowed to take off so she got to Geneva in time for her speech. She wasn't able to change clothes and excused herself for her looks but told the audience it was worth the speech. Everyone laughed of course. Then the presentation began.

Carmina had been working on this for five years now, since she had finished her studies. And the findings of her research could not be contested. She announced to the audience that the bee population around the world was decreasing due to various reasons, primarily climate change but also human interference. She declared that the decline was so representative, that in some places many flowers and plants that were abundant were now almost extinct. And she announced the same was happening with crops, although no one realized it because of the amount of cereals being planted.

In short, Carmina had discovered that food, was going to be more and more scarce due the disappearance of certain insects. Without them, hunger could strike anywhere. She closed her presentation by saying that recent events had made her realize how fragile the world was but that we had time to make things right, to find our true place in the universe. And she did believe it, more than ever before.